Dell goes to court to tackle typosquatters

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 29 Nov 2007 at 14:02

Dell has filed a lawsuit against more than a dozen companies it alleges have made millions of dollars from typosquatting internet domains.

The Florida lawsuit accuses the firms of registering domains names, such as dellfinacncialservices.com that are "confusingly similar" to Dell trademarks. It also names Juan Pablo "JP" Vazquez, alleging that he is connected to the companies. Federal marshals have seized computers and hard drives at his Miami home.

Typosquatting, the practice of registering names similar to established brands but with a slight spelling change or omission, can be highly lucrative. Squatters fill the sites with advertisements, reaping revenue every time a visitor clicks one of the ads.

In this case, Dell claims that managed to do so without ever having to pay a domain registration fee. They exploited a loophole in registration rules that allows domains to be tested for up to five days. And before the trial period came to an end, they simply re-registered it with another shell company.

David Steele, an attorney representing Dell, said that the defendants averaged between 30 and 60 million domains each month.

Vazquez's lawyer, Richard Baron, said that Steele has to prove a connection between his client and the domain registering firms.

"In my opinion, they have a huge hurdle to tie the names of the registrants to the registrar, and that's the linchpin of the case," Baron told the Washington Post. "Without evidence of that kind of collusion, they have next to nothing."

Under US law Dell would be awarded $1,000 per infringed domain name.